[비즈한국] Actress Youn Yuh-jung’s acceptance speech has become a hot topic. Youn, who won the Best Supporting Actress award for the film ‘Minari’ at this year’s British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA), gave the following acceptance speech.
“Every award is meaningful, but this one especially recognised by British people, known as very snobbish people, and they approved me as a good actor so I’m very, very privileged.”
“Every award is meaningful, but this one is even more so because it was received from the British, who are known for being very OOOO. It means they have recognized me as a very good actor, and for that, I am very, very honored.”
Laughter and applause erupted from the audience, and the host could not hide his amusement. As her speech went viral, our domestic media outlets poured out reports. The English word corresponding to OOOO here is ‘snobbish.’ According to the Naver Dictionary, it means ‘being a snob, acting pretentious, or filled with a sense of superiority.’ In early reports, most media outlets translated it simply as ‘snobbish (속물적인).’ However, perhaps because that didn’t quite capture the witty nuance of her remarks in Korean, the proportion of reports translating it as ‘pretentious (고상한 체하는)’ increased significantly later on.
Then why did the British laugh so hard at Youn’s use of the word ‘snobbish’? Humor is usually difficult to fully appreciate without knowing the social context or historical background. I asked Kim Hyun-oh, who has been living in the UK for 8 years and working in video content translation and supervision, about the reason.
According to Kim, the British generally have a strong tendency not to speak directly. They usually prefer to beat around the bush or use ‘sarcasm,’ which is a form of subtle mocking, avoiding direct expressions. The fact that Youn threw a ‘straight pitch’ at these very British people was the biggest comedic highlight.
So, what kind of meaning does the word ‘snobbish’ carry for the British? Kim explained that because the UK is a traditionally class-based society, the word is mainly used for the upper class who have a sense of superiority or for people who act stuck-up. However, it is rare to use this word to criticize such people directly to their faces. According to Wikipedia, ‘snob’ was first used in the UK in the 1820s. With its strong class culture where the royal family and aristocracy—the so-called upper class—still exist, the UK has a persistent image of being ‘snobbish’ in the eyes of other countries like the US.
Furthermore, Youn’s English skills are by no means perfect to the ears of the British. The BBC referred to it as ‘Broken English.’ In our terms, it’s like a foreigner who speaks Korean well enough to get their point across, even if they don’t use contextually perfect vocabulary.
In other words, from the British perspective, an elderly Asian actress delivered a blunt, direct comment in somewhat broken English. This is exactly the style of American stand-up comedy. For us, it’s similar to the context of a ‘foul-mouthed grandmother’ (a blunt, no-nonsense elderly woman).
However, Youn’s acceptance speech can be interpreted in different ways depending on the listener. Historically, Western civilization, including Europe, has had a deeply ingrained sense of superiority over Asia. The word ‘snobbish’ implicitly acknowledges this perception on one hand. At the press conference held after the awards ceremony, Youn was asked about the word ‘snobbish.’ She mentioned that she had felt that way about the British during her 10 years of fellowship at Cambridge University, but added, ‘but not in a bad way.’ In short, she explained that she did not see the ‘snobbish’ side of the British in a negative light.
Korean pop culture is receiving more global attention than ever before. Following director Bong Joon-ho’s film ‘Parasite’ winning four Academy Awards, the news of BTS topping the Billboard charts, and actress Youn Yuh-jung winning an acting award continues the streak of good news. For a long time, Western society had solidified an image of Asians as being overly humble, largely through Japan, which had a strong longing and fantasy for Europe. In this climate, the confident and sharp-witted remarks unique to Koreans, such as director Bong Joon-ho’s ‘Oscar is a local’ comment, are providing a strange sense of catharsis to people not only in Korea but all over the world, while breaking the stereotypical image of Asians.